Chapter XXX: Section XXIX

[a] Quintilian thinks the first elements of education so highly material, that he has two long chapters on the subject. He requires, in the first place, that the language of the nurses should be pure and correct. Their manners are of great importance, but, he adds, let them speak with propriety. It is to them that the infant first attends; he listens, and endeavours to imitate them. The first colour, imbibed by yarn or thread, is sure to last. What is bad, generally adheres tenaciously. Let the child, therefore, not learn in his infancy, what he must afterwards take pains to unlearn. _Ante omnia, ne sit vitiosus sermo nutricibus. Et morum quidem in his haud dubiè prior ratio est; rectè tamen etiam loquantur. Has primùm audiet puer; harum verba effingere imitando conabitur. Et naturâ tenacissimi sumus eorum, quæ rudibus annis percipimus; nec lanarum colores, quibus simplex ille candor mutatus est, elui possunt. Et hæc ipsa magis pertinaciter hærent, quæ deteriora sunt. Non assuescat ergo, ne dum infans quidem est, sermoni, qui dediscendus est._ Quint. lib. i. cap. 1. Plutarch has a long discourse on the breeding of children, in which all mistakes are pointed out, and the best rules enforced with great acuteness of observation.

[b] Juvenal has one entire satire on the subject of education:

Nil dictu foedum visuque hæc limina tangat,
Intra quæ puer est. Procul hinc, procul inde puellæ
Lenonum, et cantus pernoctantis parasiti.
Maxima debetur puero reverentia.
SAT. xiv. ver. 44.

Suffer no lewdness, no indecent speech,
Th' apartment of the tender youth to reach.
Far be from thence the glutton parasite,
Who sings his drunken catches all the night.
Boys from their parents may this rev'rence claim.
DRYDEN'S JUVENAL.

[c] The rage of the Romans for the diversions of the theatre, and public spectacles of every kind, is often mentioned by Horace, Juvenal, and other writers under the emperors. Seneca says, that, at one time, three ways were wanted to as many different theatres: _tribus eodem tempore theatris viæ postulantur_. And again, the most illustrious of the Roman youth are no better than slaves to the pantomimic performers. _Ostendam nobilissimos juvenes mancipia pantomimorum._ Epist. 47. It was for this reason that Petronius lays it down as a rule to be observed by the young student, never to list himself in the parties and factions of the theatre:

----Neve plausor in scenâ
Sedeat redemptus, histrioniæ addictus.

It is well known, that theatrical parties distracted the Roman citizens, and rose almost to phrensy. They were distinguished by the _green_ and the _blue_, Caligula, as we read in Suetonius, attached himself to the former, and was so fond of the charioteers, who wore green liveries, that he lived for a considerable time in the stables, where their horses were kept. _Prasinæ factioni ita addictus et deditus, ut coenaret in stabulo assidue et maneret. Life of Caligula_, s. 55. Montesquieu reckons such party-divisions among the causes that wrought the downfall of the empire. Constantinople, he says, was split into two factions, the _green_ and the _blue_, which owed their origin to the inclination of the people to favour one set of charioteers in the circus rather than another. These two parties raged in every city throughout the empire, and their fury rose in proportion to the number of inhabitants. Justinian favoured the _blues_, who became so elate with pride, that they trampled on the laws. All ties of friendship, all natural affection, and all relative duties, were extinguished. Whole families were destroyed; and the empire was a scene of anarchy and wild contention. He, who felt himself capable of the most atrocious deeds, declared himself a BLUE, and the GREENS were massacred with impunity. _Montesquieu, Grandeur et Décadence des Romains_, chap. xx.

[d] Quintilian, in his tenth book, chap. 1. has given a full account of the best Greek and Roman poets, orators, and historians; and in b. ii. ch. 6, he draws up a regular scheme for the young student to pursue in his course of reading. There are, he says, two rocks, on which they may split. The first, by being led by some fond admirer of antiquity to set too high a value on the manner of Cato and the Gracchi; for, in that commerce, they will be in danger of growing dry, harsh, and rugged. The strong conception of those men will be beyond the reach of tender minds. Their style, indeed, may be copied; and the youth may flatter himself, when he has contracted the rust of antiquity, that he resembles the illustrious orators of a former age. On the other hand, the florid decorations and false glitter of the moderns may have a secret charm, the more dangerous, and seductive, as the petty flourishes of our new way of writing may prove acceptable to the youthful mind. _Duo autem genera maximè cavenda pueris puto: unum, ne quis eos antiquitatis nimius admirator in Gracchorum, Catonisque, et aliorum similium lectione durescere velit. Erunt enim horridi atque jejuni. Nam neque vim eorum adhuc intellectu consequentur; et elocutione, quæ tum sine dubio erat optima, sed nostris temporibus aliena, contenti, quod est pessimum, similes sibi magnis viris videbuntur. Alterum, quod huic diversum est, ne recentis hujus lasciviæ flosculis capti, voluptate quâdam pravâ deliniantur, ut prædulce illud genus, et puerilibus ingeniis hoc gratius, quo propius est, adament._ Such was the doctrine of Quintilian. His practice, we may be sure, was consonant to his own rules. Under such a master the youth of Rome might be initiated in science, and formed to a just taste for eloquence and legitimate composition; but one man was not equal to the task. The rhetoricians and pedagogues of the age preferred the novelty and meretricious ornaments of the style then in vogue.